New to AM

Hey all,
I currently ride a Iron Horse Warrior 3 and i love the thing! But i think its time to get into a full suspension bike. My friend i ride with uses a Mongoose Teocali with fox air shock in the back and when i rode it, it felt like i was riding on a cloud. Going back to the hardtail was hell for me. (my trails have a bunch of decent size rocks, i rarely see anyone without a full suspension bike).

I was looking into a new full suspension bike for $1000 or less. Im on a tight budget and just want something decent. I saw the new teocali '10 is on sale at performance for $999, but i hear bad things about the stock shocks. Same goes with the GT sanction 3.0. I looked into the Jamis bikes and i hear mixed reviews too.

A FS for a grand will be crap. If your budget is under $2k consider used in good shape. This time of year (and this economy) you'll see lots of em for sale on your local bike forums. Also craigslist but not as frequent. Just have to be patient.

Not necessarily, If he looks at Performance at the end of the year, he can find some bagin bikes for under 1K. Plus even though they might have bad components, the frame is usually a good platform to upgrade on.

Sanctions are excellent climbers! I have a 1.0 (as well as an older GT iDrive) and it seems made to climb. Coming back down is great too. Granted, this can be said about many bikes (I like Giants too), I really feel the iDrive technology is one of the best suspension designs out there. If you think the Sanction 3.0 fits your budget and style, I say go for it. I guarantee you'll love the bike (though do think about parts upgrades after a while), but if you have the ability to test one out first, do that before spending your money.

Originally Posted by forkboy

And don't be scared to walk. Walking is one of the mystical 3 gears of Single Speed.

The gt does seem a hole chunk cheaper, but maybe it's because it's not as great. The only thing is the mongoose is a 09, bad maybe? Performance would probably be the place id get a bike at so if one catches your eyes, throw it up here!
There the '10 teocali for $999 but it's only the comp, compared to the elite

not the best components but the 4 link suspension is one of the oldest out there and also one of the best. for a few hundred more you get a decent upgrade in components. i bought one of the 09's models of the XC104 so i could just use the frame to build on but still have a bike to ride until the money tree grows.

if you know anything about cars the 4 link suspension is the same suspension that they use in the offroad verticals. like in trucks in the Baja 500

how does that bike compare to the others? i.e. GT sanction, Mongoose teocali or something similar. I personally have never heard of KHS (still kinda new to the sport).

KHS is a smaller brand but still produces good stuff.they have been around since 1975 and have great customer service. as compared to GT i think that there quality is a little better just not as well known. i personally think of GT as a high end Department store bike, they dont add alot of quality to their bikes so they can sell them cheaper and sell more of them. most places that sell them are chain Bike store. like performance. as most of the time that you find KHS it is at smaller LBS. i would suggest to try and find a LBS that sells them. the need your business and you can learn tons from them. The LBS that i bought mine from is great at helping you learn about every aspect of riding.

if you give us a general location someone in your area might know of a place that sells KHS and be able to recommend you. alot of time if you tell them that one of their good customers sent you they will work out deals better as they want to make a new customer and not loose an old one.

as for finding one online, i think that i remember seeing on KHS website that you can order direct from them. but if you ever have a warranty problem, it is more of a pain to deal with online companies that to take it back to the LBS and have them deal with it. plus as good shop will usually get it done quicker too. the know the right people

they dont have much left but check out the AM options at Giantnerd.com (http://www.giantnerd.com/bike/bikes/....html?cat=197), they had 2010 Diamondback Sortie 1's for $999 and 2009 Sortie 2's for the same. I think they are sold out (FS XC bikes anyway). Check them out, I think some of the mongoose models fit your price point.

Yea that bike is awesome but I'm 6ft haha.
The khs is sounding like a great bike. I live in the Glendale area of Arizona. I think I saw them on the sight of sports chalet. Ill have to go check tomorrow. I noticed that its got only 4" of reach travel and same up front. Will that be a noticeable difference from the 6" on the others I was looking at?

Yea that bike is awesome but I'm 6ft haha.
The khs is sounding like a great bike. I live in the Glendale area of Arizona. I think I saw them on the sight of sports chalet. Ill have to go check tomorrow. I noticed that its got only 4" of reach travel and same up front. Will that be a noticeable difference from the 6" on the others I was looking at?

it all depends on how you set up the bike and how you ride it. i am a clyde myself and i only have 4" of travel but i have buddies that are half my size with 6-7". if set up right you should never bottom out or have any problems with 4" and with the price range you are looking at you would have a better change at winning the lotto then finding a 6" travel bike that will last. usually more travel come in at the $2500+ mark. like i said it is all about riding style. if you are going to limit your self to drops and jumps less than 5ft then you dont need long travel.

looks like there are quite a few dealers in your area. i would check a few of them out and see what shop you feel most comfortable in. maybe you can work a deal at one store that you cant at the others too.

I'd recommend you look through the classifieds on this site or other forums. There are a lot of great deals to be had on a used bike. I look through the classifieds on mtbr and craigslist daily just to see the great deals out there, even though I'm not in the market to buy a new bike/frame. Some people are skeptical about buying used, but if you know what you want it makes it a lot easier. i.e. The other day my friend sent me a link with someone selling an 08 Turner RFX complete bike (3,500$-4,000 new) with great components 1000$. But, it didn't last long til someone swiped it. Good luck and let us know what you end up buying.

I was leaning to the khs since I can get it at sports chalet for 700 which will give me some extra money if anything breaks or needs upgraded. I can also it my marzocchi Ford that I currently have on the khs if needed. But then again a used bike would be great from the start and about the same price. Just got to fish and wait for the perfect catch. Hopefully performance would have a good black Friday sale!

edit: im hoping to find a bike that will allow me to upgrade parts in the future, as my skill increases

The Specialized looks like a good deal but it's a XC race bike. It's going to be very skiddish on the downhills / ruff stuff and ride very much like a hardtail. It will climb very well because that's where XC races are won. Is that what you want?